Air Force: Joint Strike Fighter delayed, will cost much more than once expected

the hill ^ | 3/2/10 | Roxana Tiron

[Nachum]

The high-profile F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be delayed by two years and will be significantly over cost, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said on Tuesday.

“We think it is probable that there will be a Nunn-McCurdy breach,” Donley said at a breakfast with defense reporters.

The so-called Nunn-McCurdy law requires the military services or the Pentagon leadership to tell Congress when the price tag of a program increases significantly. The Pentagon then must certify to Congress that the program is still worth pursuing.

[Nachum]

F-22 's anyone/

[traderrob6]

The F-35 will be obsolete before it’s even produced.

[GeronL]

They need to bring back the F-22 but apparently the Navy can’t use them. I say just coat the F-18’s with Radar Absorbant Material and be done with it. =O)

[Republic of Texas]

...experts surprised.

[Ben Mugged]

You underfund a program and the schedule slips. Your contract requires the contractor to deliver per the Governments approved and revised schedule. The contractor needs to keep the production crew available and raises the cost of the end product to cover the costs. Simple economics.

[pabianice]

And then there was... the XF-84H...

[Young Werther]

Manned fighter and bomber aircraft is SO Last Millenium! With current computer and satellite technology cheap drones can deliver the punch with no humans in harms way.

A thousand drones would cost less one F-22. Old farts like me could serve our country wearing pajamas and drinking coffee while defending our country from meanies!

[mbynack]

Drones can’t perform the air to air mission. It’s one of the most complex missions in the Air Force. I would also have reservations about using drones for close air missions.

[AFreeBird]

And the second your data link is jammed/disrupted whatever... your drone becomes useless.

[Young Werther]

Drones are killing Taliban as we speak! As for Air to Air Missions the Airborne Laser Aircraft could sweep the sky just as well. A fighter with a laser cannon has been proposed.

In Star Wars Luke and Hans ward off attacking star fighters with laser cannons which look alot like the B-36 waist gunners window and 50 cal machine guns. Indeed Lucas used WWII combat photos to simulate the attack on the Death Star!

[Young Werther]

Thanks to Hedy Lamar data encryption made a great leap forward. Our encryted data links could and would be hardened to prevent this defensive assault.

[AFreeBird]

I wasn't talking about spoofing / hijacking the signal - Encrypt all you want, but if the signal isn't getting through, it doesn't really matter. Also, consider the problem of lag time. Pilot to Pilot on the scene is already trying to get inside the others decision loop. Now add a remote pilot and two-way communication lag time to the equation.

And I'm not a real big fan of sophisticated, autonomous AI's running the show either. But that might just be too many SciFi flicks on my part.

[Non-Sequitur]

Air Force: Joint Strike Fighter delayed, will cost much more than once expected.

Surprise, surprise.

[Young Werther]

I was a Comm Officer in the Air Force. I was a Top Secret Control Officer and a Crypto Custodian. I am well aware of the technology and techniques that are being used now and forecast to be available in the future.